(Part 2) Reddit mentions: The best literary graphic novels

Plus one for Saga, but I just want to add in a few of my favorite comics because I love these books! Some of these aren't very mainstream, but I hope you guys will give them a try.

• American Vampire: Pearl Jones is one of my favorite heroines of all time, and the inspiration for my derby name (Pearl Bones). There are a lot of badass women in this series.
  
  
• Fables: filled with princesses who kick ass, and a fun take on classic fairy tales. The first book is meh IMO, but after that the series gets intense and sucks you in. There's also a spinoff focused on the female characters, but I haven't gotten around to checking it out.
  
  
• Delilah Dirk and the Turkish Lieutenant: short but super fun adventure; you can read the first two chapters for free through that link!
  
  
• Rachel Rising: this series is really dark and gritty, but features a cool variety of women (and witches!). Not for the squeamish.
  
  
• Aya: Life in Yop City: Loosely based on the author's life growing up in the Ivory Coast, it's a slice of life book that I feel offers a refreshing perspective on life in Africa, and it's largely focused on the women living there.
  
  EDIT: For those into manga I also want to add Girls of the Wild's, it's an awesome manhwa about an all girls fighting school. Really funny with a lot of great female characters.

So the scope is single volume stand alone works with literary merit?

I can get behind Watchmen and The Killing Joke. But despite the positives of V and Arkham, I'm not sure if they're substantial enough to teach.

American Born Chinese is on the sidebar as Novel of the Week, and that's one I'd surely recommend for teaching. It has cultural perspective, intersecting independently stylized parallel narratives, and uses comics as an intrinsic part of the message. Gene Luen Yang is by all means a modern master.

Since it seems like the OP has a healthy appreciation of older cape books: the Grant Morrison run of Animal Man is something worth teaching. It engages with cape ideology in a manner that was exemplary at the time. Retconning as metaphysical crisis was a tremendous idea at the time, and still holds up today. The "I can see you!" full page is something that resonates with its audience years later.

Asterios Polyp is a good book to teach because it just bleeds visual-narrative intent. By the time Mazzucchelli wrote it, he'd been illustrating comics for 26 years. From an academic perspective, it can be seen as a meditation on duality in nearly every possible aspect portrayed. Using comics as a medium for this is entirely necessary, as the art/writing relationship is both a focus and a medium.

If you're willing to include manga, Tatsumi's Good Bye. The whole incorporation of rakugo themes into gekiga-style adult comics was both a revolution in tone and an accomplished blend of literary tradition and comic tradition. Also, there's his biopic, so that could make for a fun movie day.

Shaun Tan's The Arrival is worth teaching as a testament to still art as a narrative medium. Even as (and perhaps because it is) a textless comic, it accomplishes narrative/emotional depth purely via artwork. This separates it from text-using comics in a manner unique to the restricted medium.

I might be praising a modern work too quickly, but Beautiful Darkness could help round out the list with another non-American. I almost recommended some Jeffery Brown autobio because of the use of innocent art with adult content, but Beautiful Darkness might to this in both a more nuanced and more extreme fashion. The childish character designs contextualize the psychological-avatar characters in a decidedly "little girl" way. This keeps their metaphoric significance from being heavy handed, and provides them with narrative-appropriate flavor that focuses the metaphor.

That's long-winded enough for me. Other commentors have already suggested some other great books, like Daytripper and Fun Home. I highly recommend going with a few non-American made comics alongside all the Americans (like Daytripper) and with at least one or two comic autobios (like Fun Home). Tatsumi's autobio A Drifting Life is also notable as autobio about comics by an accomplished comic writer. But it's prohibitively large to teach, and what Tatsumi accomplished as a creative is paramount to his individual experience.

Mmm, well, amazon, surely. Though, I'll warn you, the Crumb/Bukowski books are fuckin' expensive for what they are (like, 12 page stories for $10). I found them at a Border's a few years ago and just read them in the shop. If you haven't read Post Office DO THAT. It's great.

American Splendor... you can get that at amazon too (though, a trip to a comic store would be more enlightening and fun). This is what'll you'll want. It's pretty much a greatest hits from the series early run (Pekar died last year, I think it was). It's got all the Crumb work, I'm pretty sure.

I'd also check out your local libraries. If you go to a college, or have a decent one in town, you might have luck finding both Splendor and Bukowski. I live in Louisville and was pleasantly surprised to find out that both our University and city libraries were cool enough to stock Bukowski and lots of comics.

Mother, Come Home by Paul Hornschemeier is amazing. I teared up for hours.

I'll add another recommendation for Blankets by Craig Thompson. It was life-changing for me. Also Good-bye, Chunky Rice and Carnet De Voyage by him as well.

Much of Neil Gaiman's stuff is really amazing. Once it gets going the Sandman series gets really good.

Alan Moore also has a ton of... 'interesting' stuff. I adore him but some people think he gets far to weird. From Hell is an interesting look at Jack the Ripper. The Promethea series by him literally (and yes, I do mean that in the correct way) knocked me out of my chair at one point. The 'shell' story is proto-typical superheroics, but that's just some trappings to walk you through a long (2 years of monthly issues or so) mixed media rumination on magic, life, sex, gender, imagination, creation, and how they all feed interrelate. Filled to the brim with very interesting ideas and frequently presented in amazingly innovative ways. Nobody else pushes both the form and the content of comics at the same time the way Moore does.

That's a start.. if you gives me/us an idea of what you didn't like as well there might be some more suggestions that pop to mind.

The exact count is more like 26 or 27 since right around Christmas to be more precise.

I was always a fast reader, but the past couple of decades of hyperlinking and non-linear jumps ruined my concentration. So, I made a commitment to reread all the novels that I'd grown up with by this guy:


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alistair_MacLean

Some of these books were already decades old when I first read them, but it's amazing how well they stand the test of time.

I also just read this illustrated novel in a single sitting. It's really, really well done, and sobering to read:

http://www.amazon.com/White-Donkey-Terminal-Lance/dp/0316362832/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1462572373&sr=8-1&keywords=white+donkey

The end of that one is particularly tough ... but well worth your time.


99% of movies are not worth your time, and pretty much 100% of TV isn't any good.

Fire your TV ... turn on your brain ;)

love this contest! i have a list just for books! but these two are ones that i would particularly love but probably never buy myself.

these are my cheaper ones:

do androids dream of electric sheep?

brainiac

the october country

invisible monsters


thanks for contesting!

I love that my mom is into fiction like me. Stephen king, ann rice, LOST, Heroes, etc. Its great and an awesome way of bonding. "Seen [insert new movie here]?"

Hey Bean!

http://www.amazon.com/Sandman-Papers-An-Exploration-Mythology/dp/1560977485/ref=wl_it_dp_o_pC_nS_nC?ie=UTF8&colid=2LXY9OZC07BF0&coliid=I2QE83NQZGO1Z8

I could not agree more.

I have all 4 of the Boy's Club comic books... including 2 copies of #3 so I can keep my signed copy in pristine condition.

Got them years before even most of the chans knew what Pepe's name was. They were always fun coffee table books and conversation pieces. They're also hilarious, and Matt Furie is a great artist. I have a more substantial print of his hanging up in my place as well.

​

I think Matt Furie is probably the only person saltier than I am about what's happened with Pepe. Don't stop fighting back! At least Matt has gained some ground in the fight here and there!

The hardest ones to get into are the X-Men books, because their stories are so twisting and turning and there's a god damned crossover every six issues. So the following TPBs are listed from most recent to furthest back. If you pick up all of them, you will be sufficiently abreast of the current details in the X-Men's lives, but you can probably get a general idea if you just pick up the latest one or two.

X-Men Trade Paperbacks:

• Second Coming
  
• Nation X
  
• Messiah War
  
• Messiah Complex
  
• House of M
  
  Also, if you want just GOOD X-Men stories that aren't particularly tied down by tie-ins and crossovers, pick up any of the "Astonishing X-Men" trades.
  
  To know what's going on in the rest of the Marvel Universe (with the Avengers and whatnot) read some of these, again, listed most recent to further back:
  
  Marvel Big Event Books:
  
  
• Siege
  
• Dark Reign
  
• Secret Invasion
  
• World War Hulk
  
• Planet Hulk
  
• Civil War
  
  There are, of course, nine million spinoff books, but if you pick up the main books, they're generally able to tell the whole story.
  
  Other Great, Non-Crossover-Gold-Foil-Craziness Books from Marvel:
  
  
• Old Man Logan
  
• Runaways
  
• Iron Man: Extremis
  
• Immortal Iron Fist
  
• Thor (the reboot, by J. Michael Straczynski)
  
• Secret Warriors
  
• Anything from the Ultimate Line...
  
  Creator-Owned Stuff That's Amazing:
  
  
• Invincible - Robert Kirkman
  
• Powers - Brian Michael Bendis
  
• Fables - Bill Willingham
  
• Y - The Last Man - Brian K Vaughan
  
• Sandman - Neil Gaiman
  
• Lucifer (Sandman Spin-Off) - Mike Carey
  
• The Unwritten - Mike Carey
  
• Crossing Midnight - Mike Carey
  
• DMZ - Brian Wood
  
• Northlanders - Brian Wood
  
• Mice Templar - Michael Oeming
  
• Kick-Ass - Mark Millar
  
• Chosen - Mark Millar
  
• Wanted - Mark Millar
  
• Scalped - Jason Aaron
  
• The Boys - Garth Ennis
  
• The Sword - The Luna Brothers
  
• Girls - The Luna Brothers
  
• Ultra - The Luna Brothers
  
• Wasteland - Anthony Johnston
  
  NOW! That's like... $500 worth of trade paperbacks right there, if not more. Please don't try to buy all of those tomorrow.
  
  But, those are some ideas of books that will be a good read. If I had to give you a top three list of TPBs to go out and buy tomorrow:
  
  
• Powers Volume 1 by Bendis and Oeming
  
• Chosen by Millar and Gross
  
• Thor Volume 1 by Straczynski and Coipel

Well you have inspired me to add some further reading to the side bar I will first type out here:

The Sandman Papers
The Sandman Companion
Hanging out with The Dream King
The Lucifer Spin off Series
There was also a spin off series called The Dreaming...the only really good thing about that was the Dave McKean covers...the last arc was alright as well where Daniel actually shows up. The series is mainly about the inhabitants of The Dreaming...it was nowhere near the same caliber of story; Lucifer was.

> i dont see how it is within his intellectual property any longer

Here's how: that's the way the law is written.

It doesn't matter whether a bunch of people stole it. He clearly created the character. He has claimed copyright on it. He has sold products bearing the character's image. Just because you feel like it doesn't belong to him anymore doesn't at all change that. That's not at all the way the legal system works.

Also, re this point:

> since Furies short lived comic strip

FYI the creator released a new comic less than 2 years ago and it is still for sale online. It's not short lived, it is still going and has been a thing for around a decade.

Charles Burns does some nice trippy stuff, you should definately check him out. I would recommend the X'ed out trilogy for maximum trippiness:

http://www.amazon.com/Xed-Out-Charles-Burns/dp/0307379132/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1414582826&sr=8-4&keywords=charles+burns

Black hole is also sweet:
http://www.amazon.com/Black-Hole-Charles-Burns/dp/0375714723/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1414582826&sr=8-3&keywords=charles+burns

edit.
If you're into surrealism you could look up Ed the Happy Clown by Chester Brown
http://www.amazon.com/Ed-Happy-Clown-Chester-Brown/dp/1770460756/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1414583044&sr=1-1&keywords=ed+the+happy+clown

From an Amazon customer's review:
"Yummy Fur focuses on Ed, a hapless clown living in a dystopian world filled with callous doctors, evil police and truly mad scientists. The story kicks in when Ed finds a severed hand under his bed, and mistaking it for something left by the tooth fairy, reports his findings to the police, only to be thrown in jail. What follows is a quick descent into a world filled with sewer dwelling pygmies, a beautiful vampire, a President from another dimension and an increasingly uncomfortable view of how inhuman man can really be."

While it's a bit too late for this holiday, The Thrilling Adventures of Lovelace and Babbage would make a good gift.

This week I ready Goliath by Tom Gauld. Beautiful, understated, and powerful artwork. Take it slow.

If you want something more low key and meditative, I really like Tom Gauld's "Goliath" (graphic novel). It shows a very different perspective on how that famous bout might've looked to a reluctant Philistine champion.

It's been "saved for later" in my cart for more than a year now, ever since I read it in the public library. I really ought to pull the trigger and own it. That concept of trying to think about a situation — conflict or otherwise — from the perspective of "the other guy" is something I want to make sure my kids learn.

lol, it's actually Frank, which is what stymied your search.
He isn't a cat, he's an unspecified anthropomorphic cartoon character according to his creator, Jim Woodring. This is the most complete collection of his work, The Frank Book.
You're in for a treat, enjoy!

I actually read a comic (graphic novel?) named Tetris by Box Brown. Really interesting, I definitely recommend it.

Her recent book is one of the best purchases I've ever made. Sittin' honorably right beside my Calvin and Hobbes/Far Side comics.

Now go buy The Thrilling Adventures of Lovelace & Babbage: The (Mostly) True Story of the First Computer.

Want him to love you forever? Get him The Complete Eightball, I picture them as Wes Anderson like movies.

300 by Frank Miller

The Mystery Play by Grant Morrison

Harlan Ellison's Dream Corridor by Various

The Medusa Chain by Ernie Colón

Almuric by Roy Thomas & Tim Conrad

Joe the Barbarian by Grant Morrison (deluxe edition)

Long Walk to Valhalla

Could be a movie, but there is a lot of ground to cover, so a 6 episode AMC series could work pretty well.

Some graphic novels

Frank Millers 300 ... historical fiction, so he actually learns something. ties in with the movie visuals

Bone by Jeff Smith is pretty good. Small guy ends up on a quest against his will and saves the world.

The Complete Eightball is a double hardcover in a pretty nifty slipcase collecting all 18 issues of Daniel Clowes' seminal series.

I thought he was just from that comic Boys Club which is pretty hilarious. It's really a masterwork. Here you can buy it and probably pay the author:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/1606999192

If you really want something surrealist, Like a Velvet Glove Cast in Iron by Daniel Clowes is perfect.

Can't recommend Long Walk to Valhalla enough. It's really, really great.

In addition to others chiming in, Labouf wrote a script for a film that entirely plagiarized a graphic novel by Daniel Clowes called Like a Velvet Glove Cast in Iron. He must have thought Clowes was such an obscure sleeper genius that he could get away with it, without realizing Clowes is probably one of the most renowned graphic novelists alive.

mis4mike wrote:

Sigh and I used to like Jensen. Not everything about him, but I did like As the World Burns

Sigh and I used to like Jensen. Not everything about him, but I did like As the World Burns

Yes it would. It's his copyrighted character. I own the pepe book. It's called boy's club. He is the creator of pepe.

https://www.amazon.com/Boys-Club-Matt-Furie/dp/1606999192

Ya'll pussies need to quit downvoting that facts. I bought the book used to not give the author money. Quit being sensitive to the truth.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/160706006X.

Here you go, I heard its a really really good comic book to read.

Shout out to Hark! A Vagrant. FYI, if anyone else has a nerdy younger brother who needs a Christmas present, this book will work just fine.

Check out my New York Times bestselling graphic novel The White Donkey, published by Little Brown, below. I have a new book with LB coming this winter as well.

The White Donkey

Can't believe I forgot that one. For a similar degree of mindfuckery, you may enjoy this

If you want something really different, why not try something like this? Or this. Or this. Or this.

If you want to keep with the psycho Marvel character though, there simply is no other way to go than Deadpool Max (I think there are other available collections).

The Tetris graphic novel Jeff mentioned.

Tangentially related novel written entirely in rhyme.

And now I know the depressing truth that we are cutting down 11 million trees a day for paper. Thanks. Makes me think of this.

Yeah, I was turned on to this train of thought in my late teens from Derrick Jensen's graphic novel As the World Burns: 50 Simple Things You Can Do to Stay in Denial, which I read at about the time my peers were going two feet in on An Inconvenient Truth. It seemed so obvious to me that switching lightbulbs and taking shorter showers were drops in a bucket, but nobody wanted to hear it.

I scanned most these images from American Splendor: The Life and Times of Harvey Pekar

Story and words by Harvey Pekar

Artists, by panel:

1. Robert Crumb from the Harvey Pekar Name Story
   
2. Kevin Brown from Grubstreet USA
   
3. Sue Cavey from Old Cars and Winter
   
4. Greg Budgett & Gary Dumm from Read This
   
5. Greg Budgett & Gary Dumm from Short Weekend
   
6. Rick Geary, American Splendor Season 2 issue 4
   
7. Robert Crumb from How I Quit Collecting Records
   
8. Sue Cavey from Alice Quinn
   
9. Darick Robertson, American Splendor Season 2 issue 4
   
10. Gerry Shamray from An Everyday Horror Story
    
11. Greg Budgett & Gary Dumm from Awaking to the Terror of the New Day
    
12. Gerry Shamray from An Everyday Horror Story
    
13. Greg Budgett & Gary Dumm from Read This
    
14. Gerry Shamray from An Argument at Work
    
15. Sue Cavey from Alice Quinn
    
16. Greg Budgett and Gary Dumm from The Day Before the Be In
    
17. Gerry Shamray from One Good Turn Deserves Another
    
18. Gary G. Dumm from Stetson Shoes
    
19. Greg Budgett and Gary Dumm from The Day Before the Be In
    
20. Robert Crumb from the Harvey Pekar Name Story
    Gerry Shamray from At Argument at Work

From this album by Derrick Jensen and Stephanie McMillan http://www.amazon.com/As-World-Burns-Simple-Things/dp/1583227776#reader_1583227776

http://www.amazon.com/300-Frank-Miller/dp/1569714029/

Boy's Club?

You might wanna read this

Long Walk To Valhalla?

Mark Millar, Chosen.
http://www.amazon.com/American-Jesus-Chosen-Mark-Millar/dp/160706006X

https://www.amazon.com/Boys-Club-Matt-Furie/dp/1606999192

https://www.comixology.com/Boys-Club/digital-comic/358184

....Have you read The White Donkey by Terminal Lance Actual Max Uriarte?

Link to Boy's Club Amazon

You should check out White Donkey: Terminal Lance if you don't mind reading/graphic novels. its about some grunts in Iraq, written by a marine who served a couple tours over there.

They were able to trick the media into thinking Pepe the Frog is a nazi cartoon.

Mother Come Home and Don't Go Where I Can't Follow are definitely a couple more Van Damme roundhouse kicks to the feels.

My bad. I will read this historical book to educate myself...

obviously and blatant copyright infringement. SAD!

Support the artist https://www.amazon.com/Boys-Club-Matt-Furie/dp/1606999192

e: wtf guys, grow up. break the law because the artist has a different political view? ya'll sound like the salty left. don't steal shit, it's common sense.